


Impatience

by Runic_Purple_Panda



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: There Is No Conspiracy To Keep Muggleborns Out Of The Ministry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-05-07 05:11:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5444495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Runic_Purple_Panda/pseuds/Runic_Purple_Panda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While the Weasley children are at St. Mungo’s visiting Arthur, Hermione goes into a rant about there not being enough muggleborn in Ministry jobs.</p><p>Sirius sets her straight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Impatience

**Author's Note:**

> So, there’s a pretty big piece of fanon, at least in some of the fanfictions I’ve read, that the Ministry of Magic actively prevents muggleborn from getting jobs with them for some reason or another. But what if they didn’t – what if such a thing only happened with a Voldemort-controlled Ministry – which we can all agree did things outside their normal work to keep from getting killed. What, then, kept muggleborns from getting jobs when the Ministry was working normally?
> 
> And in the process of answering that, I also answered why most pureblood families only have the one child, without using the common fanon answer of ‘all purebloods are inbred and have trouble conceiving because of it’.

“…and did you know there’s only been one muggleborn Minister of Magic in the past?  There aren’t even any muggleborn department heads at the Ministry right now!” Hermione ranted.

Harry made an agreeing noise and nodded his head.  Though Hermione did not see it, Sirius noticed that Harry wasn’t even paying attention; he was obviously off in his own little world, and had done this many times before considering that he knew exactly when to nod his head and make that little agreeing noise.  Sirius thought that even Ron had probably learned how to do that by now, if Hermione going into rants like this was commonplace.

“The closest is a half-blood with a muggleborn mother, and even he’s only in Goblin Relations!” Hermione continued.  “Why doesn’t the Ministry hire more muggleborns?  I’ve watched the class rankings – muggleborn regularly rank higher than their pureblood peers, so -!”

“Well, the problem is your lot doesn’t really stick around to get the jobs, now do they?” Sirius said.  Harry’s attention immediately snapped to him, shocked that someone, even his godfather, would interrupt one of Hermione’s rants.

Hermione’s face turned red with anger, “What’s that supposed to mean!?”

“It means exactly that,” Sirius answered.  “Do you know how old the average wizard and witch can grow to be?  Muggles may only last into their seventies on average, but magicals can live well into their hundred-fifties – hell, Dumbledore’s almost at that age already, and he’s still as spry as he was in his nineties!”

“But…what’s that got to do with anything?” Harry asked.

“It’s got everything to do with it,” Sirius said.  “Longer lives means more time spent occupying jobs, leaving less jobs for those that come after.”

“But, surely when the jobs open up, the ones’ filling them would prefer the students with the better grades?” Hermione said.

“When a job opens up, the ones filling it take the best of those that _apply_.  You muggleborn are so impatient and needy of a job _immediately_ after you graduate, that you disappear back into the muggle world to find one.  And then, you’re not here in the magical world to hear about any job openings so you can apply for one, and nobody, muggleborn or pureblood, gets a job they didn’t apply for!”

Hermione began to sputter, but Sirius continued, “If you muggleborn wanted a job in the Ministry so badly, then you should have hung around to apply for one.”

“But I couldn’t _afford_ to do that!  How would I pay for a house?  Or food?  Or any children I might have?”

“The same way everyone else in the magical world does – family money!”

“My parents don’t make that much money!”

“The hell they don’t – you wouldn’t have gotten invited to Hogwarts if they didn’t.  You would have gone to a day school and be prepared for one of the service industries – shopkeeper, bartender, etcetera, etcetera.  Hogwarts only invites students whose family has the money to wait for a job in the Ministry.”

Hermione began sputtering again, and Harry’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“Wait, what about the Weasleys?” Harry asked.  “I mean, Ron’s my best friend and all, but his family is not exactly, well, as rich as, say, the Malfoys.”

“Arthur Weasley makes just as much money as Lucius Malfoy does.  The only difference in their financial situations is that Arthur has six more children to take care of than Malfoy does.  Why do you think that Bill and Charlie left for apprenticeships to the goblins and dragon-handlers after they graduated?  To lessen the financial strain on their parents.”

“But…that’s…”Hermione continued to sputter.

“Why do you think so many pureblood families only have one child instead of following the old muggle _an heir and a spare_ ways?  So that the entire family can live comfortably on the one paycheck even as each generation adds a spouse and another child to the family.”

Hermione was still sputtering.

“I think you broke Hermione,” Harry said.

“I didn’t mean to,” Sirius said, “but really – the girl acts as though there’s some great conspiracy to keep all muggleborn out of the Ministry or something.”


End file.
